Napoli v Juventus: Allegri demands improvement

Massimiliano Allegri has revealed his anger at Juventus’ lacklusture start to the season and wants to see an immediate improvement against Napoli on Saturday.

The Serie A champions were held to a 1-1 draw by rock-bottom Frosinone last time out, leaving them 10 points behind early leaders Inter following Leonardo Blanchard’s last-gasp leveller.

It is the club’s worst start to a top-flight season, with their woes alleviated only slightly by the Champions League victory over Manchester City.

“I’m angry because we must improve quickly,” said Allegri, who is likely to be without Stephan Lichtsteiner after the Switzerland defender went off at half-time against Frosinone with breathing difficulties.

“We’re shipping goals from the first opportunity that falls the way of our opponents. We keep trying to force the play in instances when we should be slowing things down.

“We’ve got a team full of youngsters who need to develop but we need to work to improve the team and bring it up to a certain level.”

Napoli have endured a similarly sluggish start, having taken just one point more than Allegri’s men after been held by lowly Carpi last time out.

Gonzalo Higuain has provided some highs for Maurizio Sarri’s side his term, netting four times in Serie A.

But despite scoring two goals in Napoli’s 5-0 thrashing of Lazio last weekend, Higuain has been left out of Argentina’s squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay, with Juve’s uncapped Paulo Dybala, who has netted three times in 2015-16, earning a call-up.

Napoli drew a blank against Carpi with wayward finishing ensuring their dominance of the ball counted for little, but Sarri was not concerned by his side’s display.

“We failed to score but I am happy with the performance,” he told Napoli’s website. “Now we look ahead to Juve at the San Paolo, so we train and prepare for this race to the best of our ability.”

Juve and Napoli met three times last season, the former completing a league double but losing in the Super Cup on penalties.